I ask myself this question to this day. It's not that I spend my every waking hour thinking about this, but when I see Lauren having an outburst, going through a bad day, struggling to communicate because of her autism, yes, this question comes to my mind.
Lauren was born on 11 November 2002 by C-section. Lauren was diagnosed with intra-uterine growth retardation (IUGR) - I really dislike the word "retardation" in this term - when Wee Leng was seven months into her pregnancy. So from week 28 onwards, Wee Leng had to go for weekly ultrasounds to monitor Lauren's growth and to ensure there was sufficient blood flow to her brains. Our Obstetrician wanted to deliver Lauren at 32 weeks. After further thought, he felt we could wait, so long as the ultrasounds continued to show good blood flow from Wee Leng's uterus to Lauren. All went well, and Wee Leng was wheeled into the operation theatre for her C-section when Lauren was 38 weeks old.
At birth, Lauren's paediatrician was surprised that she wasn't as tiny as her obstetrician had thought she would be. Lauren weighed in at 2.45kg. All checks came back normal and we were off on our parenting journey.
From little, Lauren was not good at latching onto the breast. She would constantly fall asleep early during milk feeds and we ended up bottle feeding all the expressed breast milk just to be sure she was getting sufficient nutrition. I had the wonderful pleasure of bottle feeding Lauren almost every night, while Wee Leng was busy expressing, and it was exciting seeing her put on weight. Her growth progression was normal and Lauren was an alert and happy baby.
 |
| Lauren at 1 1/2 years old, June 2004 |
I always have the picture of Lauren as a happy, laughing little toddler in my mind. She would laugh her lungs out at all the silly faces and strange noises I made. We had a close bond from day 1. She constantly fell asleep on my chest at night after the feeds. I remember feeling her peacefulness.
When it was time for her scheduled immunizations, we took her to her paediatrician. Every check up did not raise any alarm bells and she continued to progress and achieve her milestones. After Lauren's MMR immunization at 12 months old, we started noticing things.
Like many parents, we exposed Lauren to many popular educational videos. Barney, High 5 and Richard Scarry's BusyTown. Lauren loved them. She would sing all her favourite songs from these shows. Do the actions as she sang. We were actually very impressed with her memory and how she could carry a tune and also mimic the different character voices from the shows.
Then we started noticing awkward behaviours. Lauren would stick all her stickers in a straight line. She would line up her toys in a straight row as well. She would throw a huge tantrum if anyone were to accidentally knock a toy out of its place in the straight line.
These tantrums continued to get worse. They were more intense and went on for long periods of time. Lauren would get upset over the smallest things. Someone closes the car door instead of her. Someone flushes the toilet when she should be.
By three years old, Lauren was still not able to give the answer to the question of "What is your name?". She would echo the question and answer. It was about then, when Lauren was 3 years old that we decided we should get professional help to understand Lauren's development (or lack of) and tantrums.
After going back and forth to Hospital UKM and Sunway University to see two separate Clinical Psychologists, visiting hearing experts, even meeting with a reknowned Psychiatrist who wanted to medicate Lauren, we finally got an accurate diagnosis, and more importantly very helpful advise on how to help Lauren from Dr Winnie Lau and Dr Tony Attwood in Australia.
Fast forward to 2015. Lauren is 12 years old going on 13. She's pretty, has a loving nature, loves reading, loves music, and enjoys chatting with her brother on movies, songs and storybooks. She tells us she wants to have friends yet she struggles with making and keeping friends. She is learning her way around our social world and we are always so awed by her resilience and persistence to learn.
And to this day, we are not sure if we did the right thing by taking her for her MMR jab that day many years back. Would things have been different if we didn't? I don't know.
But we didn't take the chance with Lauren's little brother, Luke. He skipped his MMR at 12 months old and only received the immunization at 6 years old because it was a pre-requisite for registration into Primary 1 in Singapore. Luke is 9 years old today and a typical child.
What are your thoughts on this?
I think research will show, that traits that are consistent with autism start to emerge around the same time as when the MMR vaccine is due which is why many have assumed a link. There have been numerous test debunking the autism/vaccine link, I work daily with children with Autism and children with no Autism. Almost all have been vaccinated, there is no correlation. However, I have met a child who didn't have a gene that was required to flush out the Mercury (which is safe to the general population who have this gene) that is used in the vaccines, subsequently a build up of this (usually harmless) mercury lead to autism like behaviours. Once this was identified, the child continue to progress as usual. The whole time however, I did not agree with others labelling of this child as being on the spectrum as she was socially quite okay, despite having difficulties with conversational turn taking. I would still recommend vaccinating.
ReplyDeleteHi there Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment. It's always great to hear view points from people. It would be great if single vaccinations, as opposed to 3-in-1 vaccinations, were more readily available. Does anyone else have anything to share? It'd be lovely to hear other view points.